The Goal
Business-as-Mission (BAM) Explained
What does Business-as-Mission mean and why do we engage in it?
Introducing Pioneering BAM
There is much fervor behind BAM. Church planters are eager to have a more secure means of access into least evangelized communities and excited about the possibilities to impact their society. Churches see the opportunity of not just sending their seminary students or medical personnel to the mission field but also their entrepreneurs, office managers, and other business experts from their congregations. Businesspeople desire to use their skills and experience for the glory of God. Philanthropists and investors want to support sustainable ventures.
But there are also many challenges, beginning with the variety of definitions assigned to BAM. Is it marketplace ministry or a Christian-owned business? Is it a socially responsible/environmentally sustainable/community transformative/church planting-catalyzing company? Thought leader Patrick Lai, responding to the confusion of terms, suggests changing the relevant term to B4T (business-for-transformation), focusing on businesses that allow church planters to bring the gospel to unreached people.
We believe one key to organizing and developing the thinking around BAM is to differentiate between two main outcomes of BAM and the efforts behind them: 1) church planting and 2) social change. We’ve termed these as “Pioneering BAM” and “Transformational BAM”. Pioneering BAM uses business to enable the planting of churches among the unreached. Transformational BAM uses business as a means to promote Biblical values and social good in communities and societies.
Both approaches are valid. Both glorify God. Neither is better than the other. However, it is important to distinguish the two in order to avoid misdirected expectations, efforts, and resources. Without this distinction, those seeking to practice BAM may have difficulty achieving the outcomes they desire because they have strategies and expectations drawn from one approach but used in another. For example, a Transformational business might prioritize the hiring of locals and not “expat” church planters, a strategy used in Pioneering BAM ventures to foster relationship building. Other considerations can also be affected, like the scale of the business, sources of funding, and selection of an office location.
We see a Biblical pattern for such a differentiation, paralleled in the difference in roles between Paul and Timothy. Paul was an apostle whose ambition was to preach the gospel where it had not been heard, so that he would not build on another’s foundation (Romans 15:20). To that end, he moved from city to city, never staying in one location for too long but seeking first to see a church planted. His was a pioneering task.
By contrast, Timothy was the pastor at Ephesus. His role was to shepherd the church, teaching them to obey everything Christ had commanded them. His church was then to be a display of God’s glory through the ways in which they lived their lives. Timothy’s task was the transformation of his church to become conformed to the image of Christ, including how they then served others around them.
In the BAM space, both Paul and Timothy roles are similarly needed. We thank God for those who pursue Transformational BAM and pray for their continued success. At Access Partners, we likewise seek to faithfully pursue the opportunity we have to focus on Pioneering BAM.
Focusing Pioneering BAM
Pioneering church planters in the 10/40 window encounter problems of access that missionaries in other contexts often do not experience. These difficulties include:
- Hostile Government: Church planters are often not welcomed into 10/40 countries. For most, it is not an option to get a missionary visa into the country. It is also increasingly becoming difficult to enter the countries as humanitarian aid workers, students, or teachers.
- Uncertain Visas: It is difficult to maintain a long-term presence in these countries. Church planting takes years if not decades especially in areas where fewer than 2% of the population professes Christ. In this environment, a sustained Christian witness is important. Even if church planters are granted a visa, they will most likely have limitations on the length of time they are allowed in-country. As a result, church planters invest a disproportionate amount of resources to renew their visas and to move their families in and out of the country.
- Suspicious Communities: Locals will often be suspicious of foreigners. There are many cultural barriers, including negative connotations of missionaries due to the Crusades and cultural memories of forced baptisms, among other injustices. There is also the assumption that a foreigner could be an intelligence agent and not really revealing their true identities or intentions. For gospel relationships to be built, these barriers need to be broken down so church planters spend much time looking for natural ways to build relationships.
In this pioneering church planting situation, we propose that work should only be done through the Pioneering BAM approach rather than the Transformational BAM approach.
To be effective, we aim only for a double bottom-line: 1) establishing a legitimate business that 2) enables church planting in least reached areas.
Certainly, a BAM venture can have positive externalities in addition to church planting impact. We firmly believe that a good business will also be beneficial for the community. For example, an electricity generation project is a business that will also provide a social good to people. A tourism company can bring dollars to the local economy and attract attention to a particular area, which will in turn benefit the community.
However, if we require that a BAM business must also attain social or environmental goals as main priorities, then we risk it missing out on its main goal, which is the planting of Biblical, indigenous churches. We will therefore first focus on making the business succeed, then add other priorities.
Take the case of a carpet weaving project in Afghanistan that sought to be profitable and foster church planting. It also attempted community development through providing significantly higher wages to its weavers, fostering employee involvement, and developing a plan to transfer ownership to the employees over a 5-year period. With so many objectives, it was difficult for the business to succeed and its manager later became burned out.
There are enough difficulties conducting business above board in the 10/40 window, which contains some of the most corrupt countries in the world . Balancing church planting goals with a legitimate business entity is already enough of a challenge. Therefore, we are willing to sacrifice less critical goals in order to accomplish our overarching objectives.
Closing Summary
Business-as-Mission (BAM) strategies abound. Many are excited about the possibilities of effecting both spiritual and physical transformation in the lives of those who have yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many are motivated to use everyday business skills in tandem with ministry work and the opportunity this presents for laypeople to engage in missions overseas.
Yet the development of the BAM movement remains stunted. The definition of BAM is nebulous, there is a dearth of working examples, and the biggest constraint—personnel—is not adequately addressed.
At Access Partners, we remain optimistic regarding BAM. It is a viable strategy of increasing relevance to mission work in least evangelized locations. What’s needed is a maturing of the BAM industry.
We propose doing so by reducing the complexity of the BAM problem.
Instead of creating a whole new infrastructure (e.g., developing new business-missionary people, a whole new funding marketplace, and always starting new businesses), we want to connect existing resources and align them so that they are directed toward the goal of legitimate BAM.
In doing so, we seek to mirror the social investing space, which is trending to maturity—from disparate one-off projects to coalescing around a coordinated approach. To be legitimate, BAM must also proceed down the same path.